Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard

19:55:31

19/01/2017

The human rights activist, Director of the Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection Elena Berezhnaya delivered an address to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 17th January. She reminded that two years ago, the court cancelled the decision of the Council of Ministers of Ukraine on the suspension of social benefits on the territory of Donbass not controlled by Ukraine. The human rights activist called the complete disregard of this decision by the Ukrainian authorities genocide of their own people.

“The appeal court of cassation upheld this decision as lawful, and ordered to not only pay money but also to compensate the entire debt that was formed since July of 2014,” stressed Elena Berezhnaya. However, the Ukrainian anti-people power still has not complied with the court’s decision.

Elena Berezhnaya reminded that the Ukrainian government were obliged to implement the decision of the court in the UN General Assembly. A year ago, the Minister for occupied territories Vadim Chernysh personally promised the UN representative that the payments will resume within two weeks. The human rights activist noted that Vadim Chernysh refuses to answer the question of why he lied to such a reputable organization.

According to Elena Berezhnaya, for the resumption of social payments there is no need to invent special mechanisms, because in the court’s resolution there is already a decision on how to pay the residents of Donbass their money.

“Vice-speaker Irina Gerashchenko, who said that they are not going to pay for dead souls, in fact, called for blasphemous actions. It is shameful for a woman to speak about the elderly, children-orphans, children with disabilities, who are left without social protection,” stated the Director of the Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection.

She noted that the former Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko in one of the briefings said that he expected more people will die in Donbass.

“I.e. he was knowingly planning the death of these people,” said Elena Berezhnaya.

At the moment the representatives of the Institute of Legal Policy and Social Protection appeals in the European Court of Human Rights, and will pursue criminal cases against the Prime Minister of Ukraine Vladimir Groysman, Chairman of the Pension Fund, Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine.

As a reminder, earlier it was reported that Lugansk residents won a lawsuit against the Ukrainian authorities on payment of social benefits and pensions.